Westminster Abbey is Britain's premier religious site, where monarchs are crowned and major state funerals, such as Sir Winston Churchill’s, take place. The abbey contains many magnificent tombs, but none more magnificent than the tomb of Lady Margaret Douglas. Though now little known, she was a key figure in the late Tudor era.

Lady Margaret was the daughter of Archibald Douglas, the 6th Earl of Angus, and Margaret Tudor, the elder sister of Henry VIII. She was born in England, a few days after her heavily pregnant mother fled Scotland to seek refuge with her brother King Henry. This was during King James V of Scotland’s attempt to destroy the Douglases. When hostilities ceased mother and daughter returned to Scotland, and Margaret spent many years with her father at Douglas properties such as the magnificent Tantallon Castle.

As a teenager, hostilities resumed and her father sent her to England for her safety. There, she matured into a beautiful young woman in her uncle Henry VIII’s court. For several years, when Henry declared his daughters Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate, Lady Margaret was just a heartbeat away from becoming Queen of England..

Lady Margaret’s life was one of ill-advised amorous adventures, political intrigue, and a relentless quest for power for her family. She was the mother of Lord Darnley, and much against the wishes of Queen Elizabeth I, she successfully schemed, and traded her right to the Angus earldom for Darnley to marry Mary, Queen of Scots. This union produced her grandson, King James VI of Scotland and I of England, the monarch who initiated the union of England and Scotland.

“Lady Margaret Douglas and Her Dynasty” chronicles the life of this influential woman and her descendants, the bridge between the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, during the turbulent time of the Tudor court.